Dashed Thoughts

by Chevan

Chapter II - Dragon Crusading

Spike awoke after just a little bit more sleeping. His mouth stretched by itself, preparing to make a yawn. He didn’t want to wake up the two ponies still sleeping downstairs too soon by his usual yawn, so he managed to do it quietly. Glancing through his half-closed eyelids at the clock just above the doorway, he found out it was 2 PM.

‘Whoa, I’ve slept so much today. I feel like I slept off the whole week. Well, I think it’s time to get up,’ He thought while getting up on his sleeping basket. While exiting it he stumbled on its edge, what caused him to fall forward to the floor causing a loud thud.

“Owwwwwww,” he moaned in an instant after the contact with the hard surface, ‘Jeez, why do I always have to forget about this! I hope I didn’t wake them up…’ He thought when he finally got back to his senses. He rose up from the ground, and cleaned his dirty abdomen using his claws.

He left the room, and went down the stairs to the library. He turned his head to face the fireplace, and in front of it he found the two sleeping ponies – the prismatic-maned pegasus, and the purple unicorn – each on her own cushion. He started walking up closer to them, all the time trying to not make a single sound.

The sight of them in close proximity made his mouth curl up to the smile.

Rainbow Dash was snoring quietly, and her wings were retracted to her sides. The damaged wing looked completely healed and in perfect condition, as Twilight always did a great job. Her wings were in the shape they supposed to be, it was not hard to notice she even preened the feathers in both of them. Spike wasn’t an expert in pegasus anatomy, but he knew a little but about the structure and behavior of the pegasus wing. From what he saw of Twilight and Rainbow, it was enough for him to assess their state. Her front hooves were hanging down from the edge of the cushion, her head was resting between them, and her eyes tightly closed. She looked just like she was sleeping on a cloud, but from much shorter distance.

Twilight was sleeping on her own cushion just beside her. She was laying in the same position as Rainbow, it seemed that everypony liked sleeping like that. Her horn was facing Rainbow’s wing, like during the time she was recovering the feather. Twilight was not snoring, unlike her pegasus friend.

Spike’s stomach started to growl loudly. He put his claws on it, trying to suppress the embarrassing sound of his food-wanting stomach, ‘Heh, it’s time to hunt for some gems,’ he thought as he made his way towards the kitchen.

After eating a delicious meal, he stood at the doorway. Scanning around the library, his attention was caught by an open book laying down on the floor just beside the unicorn statue in the middle. He got closer, and examined it further. By looking at its cover he was informed that the book was about advanced manipulation spells, and it was open on the page which contained gravitation spells. Now he was almost certain what caused this enormously loud crash when Rainbow Dash arrived.

‘Gravitation spells? So Twilight can now control gravity? For the first time I thought Twilight hit or dropped something, or whatever she did with that magic of hers, but now I think that something just fell because of the big change of gravitation… But what could fall with that much force?’ He looked around the room, trying to find an object heavy enough to make the whole library tree shake by an impact with the floor. After some thinking, he came up to the conclusion, ‘I think it was this bookshelf right above the entrance, I can’t see any other reasonable explanation…’ He thought.

He approached the table which was right beside Twilight and put the book on it, then turned around and sit on the stairs.

‘I don’t have anything to do in the library right now, and it’s closed because Twilight’s sleeping.’ He sat there for a while, and after some thinking he finally came up with an idea. “I’ll go to check on Cutie Mark Crusaders, maybe they need some help with their crusading, as always…” He said quietly to himself.

He took a piece of paper and wrote a note that said that he went to the Crusaders, and placed it on the table beside Twilight, in case they wake up sooner and they could not find him around.

He rose up from the stairs and headed to the exit of the library. After unlocking the door, he went outside and closed it behind him. He made his way towards Sweet Apple Acres.

When he was about to get into the orchard, he encountered Applejack with an empty applecart attached to her back, going back to the orchard to continue her work.

“Howdy there, partner! What brings ya ‘round?” She asked.

“Hey, Applejack! I was just thinking if Crusaders needed some help, do you know where they are?” Spike replied.

“Ah reckon they’re in their clubhouse, ‘cos earlier today Applebloom told me that they’re gonna be thinkin’ ‘bout more ways to get their cutie marks…” she chuckled, “…as always,”

“Thanks, Applejack! I’m gonna go and find them,” Spike said as he began walking inside the orchard, Applejack walking just beside him.

“Ah will go with ya, then!” Applejack shouted. After some time walking she looked at the dragon and asked, “So, did Rainbow make it to the library?”

“Ah yes, she did. I was sleeping then, so I don’t know exactly when she entered, but I saw her after Twilight called me to tell me something,” Spike answered.

“How’s that wing o’hers? Ow shucks, it didn’t look so good…” Applejack said, clearly worried about her pegasus friend.

“Yeah, it looked pretty bad, I felt so sorry for her. But Twilight recovered the feather, so let’s say she’s okay now.” Spike said, looking at Applejack with a smile.

“Well that’s good news! Ah reckon she’s happy now,” Applejack said, smiling.

“I’m sure she is. They were both exhausted after the process, so they’re both sleeping in the library right now, that’s why I’m going to check on crusaders, you know, to not wake them up,” Spike answered.

“Ah understand, Ah’m not surprised it was mighta exhaustin' for both of 'em. But they’re gonna come to Pinkie’s today, ain't they?” Applejack said.

“Yes they are, I have to come back home at 7 to wake them up, just as Twilight asked me to. They wouldn’t miss Pinkie’s party for anything,” Spike answered, smiling.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders’ Clubhouse was located deep inside Apple Family Orchards. They walked together for about five more minutes, talking about what could have happened while Spike was asleep.

When the clubhouse was starting to be visible, they parted ways, waving goodbye to each other. Applejack went to the nearest apple trees to buck some apples, and Spike made his way towards the Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse.

He could hear some sounds coming from inside, so he was certain that they were there. Spike knocked at the door, and they were quarreling about who should answer it. Scootaloo was the one who managed to open it after what seemed to be an eternity.

Scootaloo had an angry expression drawn on her face while opening the door. Spike assumed the other ponies made her answer it by telling her like ‘it’s your turn’, or ‘I was answering the door last time’ kind of reasons. But despite that, Scootaloo started to grin immediately after she saw who is waiting on the other side.

“Hey Spike! Sorry you had to wait for so much time, come on in!” Scootaloo said, letting the dragon inside.
 
“Hey Spike!” said both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle in unison as soon as they saw Spike walking in.

“Hey girls, I thought you wanted some help with crusading so I… I…“ Spike cut out when he figured out what was laying on the table right beside Apple Bloom. His eyes got wide, and his jaw dropped.

There laid a big, cyan, probably primary feather.

“W-Where did you g-get this from?” Spike said, pointing at the table with a feather on it.

All of the crusaders turned their heads to face the table. Then they all looked back at Spike, grinning.

“We were makin’ some crusadin’ today ‘round the orchard, and we found this layin’ in a grass-” Started Apple Bloom,

“-we thought it is great to have the feather because it supposedly brings luck-“ Added Sweetie Belle.

“-so we brought it here so we will have more luck and we will have our cutie marks sooner!” Finished Scootaloo. All of them started grinning even more, but the dragon looked still aghast.

“D-Do you know w-who it belongs to?” After that the trio started scratching their chins, thinking about an answer.

After a while Scootaloo said, “To a cerulean pegasus?” she beamed, but in an instant her jaw dropped and her eyes shot wide just like Spike’s own, “…or cyan?… wait a second… is it…?” she said, picking the feather up from the table and examining it closely. She wanted to be sure if she’s right, “Y-Yes, it is clearly cyan… D-Does it belong to…” She said, still staring at the cyan primary with wide eyes.

Spike’s nod was enough to make Scootaloo grin like crazy and shoot up from excitement. She now holds her idol’s feather, the feather of the most awesome and the fastest Pegasus in all of Equestria!

“Aww yeah! If it belongs to Rainbow Dash, we’ll be… wait… we are the luckiest foals in all of Equestria!” she faced the other two crusaders, who looked clearly confused, “Do you know girls what does it mean?” Scootaloo said, beaming.

“We know Scootaloo, but we know who it belongs to, so we simply cannot appropriate it!” Sweetie Belle started.

“We have to return it, or at least ask her for permission to keep it. Don’t you think she may be hurt?” Apple Bloom added in an instant after the unicorn.

“She was hurt, her wing was badly damaged by a feather ripping out, but Twilight used her magic to heal her,” Spike added.

Scootaloo turned her head to Spike immediately, her pupils like pinpricks, “She was hurt? What exactly happened?”

“Well, I don’t know much, because I was sleeping when she came around. The only thing I know is that she lost her feather,” he pointed at the cyan feather, which was still in Scootaloo’s hoof, “and Twilight recovered it by her magic. That’s all I know.”

Scootaloo’s eyes went back to normal, she was evidently calming down, “Is she in the library now?”

Spike answered after a second, “Yeah, she is, but they’re both sleeping right now, and they told me to wake them up at 7 today so they can go to Pinkie’s,” he paused, “you can go with me, but until then, what do you have in plans for today, Crusaders?”

“We wanted to try somethin’ extreme today, wanna come with us?” Apple Bloom said.

Spike gulped, knowing what he is getting himself into, “O-okay, whatever you’re planning, let’s get this over with…”

Twilight’s eyelids parted, her vision was blurry. Her body started to shiver a little from coldness. She rose up from her cushion and started looking around trying to find a blanket. When her sight went back to normal she saw a note on the table beside her. It was from Spike. It said that he went to Crusaders’ Clubhouse and he’ll be back at 7, and that he left the note in case they wake up sooner and they couldn’t find him anywhere. Twilight smiled, and resumed searching for a blanket.

She slowly trotted upstairs to her room, where she took two blankets from the drawer using her now weak magic to perform a levitation spell. She turned around, and looking at the clock above the entrance she found it to be 3pm. She went back downstairs, and put one of the blankets around Rainbow, making her move in place a little and lightly smile in response.

Twilight’s lips turned to the smile as well, ‘I know pegasus ponies never feel cold, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a blanket,’ 

She laid back down on her own cushion, and put the second blanket on her just like she did on Rainbow. She smiled, welcoming a heat that now graced her body. She closed her eyes and immediately continued her peaceful slumber.

Apple Bloom was serious when she said that this crusading they planned for today was going to be extreme. They planned… hang gliding. Apple Bloom had done this before with Rainbow Dash before Diamond Tiara’s cuteceañera, but she didn’t make it just because she stumbled, which resulted in a 180-degree forward somersault. She still had the hang glider in a clubhouse, so they didn’t have to worry about making or buying one.

Cutie Mark Crusaders Hang Gliders was really dangerous, it was all basically about jumping off the cliff with a hang glider tied to their back… Happily, they had a pegasus in their squad. Scootaloo had improved her flying skills recently, so if anything had gone bad, she was ready to rescue her friends.

They were jumping off the edge one after one, one at the same time. Scootaloo was flying just below them, ready to catch them if anything went wrong. Her wings were flapping making a buzzing sound like a fly. She wasn’t as fast and agile as Rainbow Dash, but she knew she could catch her falling friends and safely put them on the ground.

Results of the crusading were unfortunately mixed. Sweetie Belle almost crashed against the thorns, thankfully Scootaloo saved her. Apple Bloom and, after some convincing – Spike, managed to reach the ground safely. When Scootaloo had her turn, the wind changed so much that it broke the mounting of the hang glide. She managed to recover herself, and she landed safely on the ground. Sadly, the now unattached hang glide crashed against the tree and shattered to pieces.

Scootaloo frowned looking at the destroyed equipment. Their hang gliding adventures came to the end…

She looked at her flank.  It was blank…

Scootaloo groaned, and took off back to her friends, who were waiting up on the cliff.

Both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had blank flanks as well, so hang gliding became an another entry on their “To Do”, or “To Crusade” list to strike off. Needless to say, hang gliding is not their special talent.

They all headed back towards the clubhouse, their heads dropped down.

“We tried almost everything, and we still don’t have our cutie marks!” Scootaloo cried.

“Don’t worry Scoots, we still have a lot of ideas on our list!” Said Sweetie Belle.

“But… Guys! We tried almost everything! We’ll never find our special talents!” Scootaloo groaned.

“Hey, but hang gliding was so much fun, wasn’t it?” Spike said.

“Yeah, it was, but the point of it was gettin’ a cutie mark, and we still don’t have it!” Apple Bloom said.

Spike was trying his best to cheer the Crusaders up, “Aw come on, you have plenty of other stuff to do in Ponyville, you’ll surely find something that’s your special talent!” He smiled.

“Psh, yeah… maybe someday…” Apple Bloom huffed.

“Hey, we can all go back with me to the library, you’re going to Pinkie’s anyway. I have to wake Twilight and Rainbow up.” Spike said.

“Okaaay,” they all said in unison, not showing a single sign of happiness.

They were walking to the library for almost half an hour. During that time they were all talking about the other ideas to get their cutie marks, about what are they going to do at Pinkie’s party, and what are they going to do tomorrow together. Spike always had great ideas, the foals were so grateful for his help.

As they arrived to the library, they slowly opened the door and walked inside. In the background they saw the two ponies sleeping near the fireplace, but they were now covered in blankets. They silently walked closer to them, and looked with a smile at the sleeping mares in front of them. They decided to wake Twilight first.

Spike lightly poked her shoulder, and whispered to her ear, “Twilight,” he paused, “Twilight, wake up, it’s 7!”

Her eyes started to slowly open. She rubbed her eyes, and looked at the group in front of her, “Oh, hello Spike, hello girls,” She inhaled, and stretched her mouth to a quiet yawn. She slowly got up on her hooves, and took the blanket off her using her magic. She folded it and placed it on the cushion, “Thanks for waking me up.”

“No problem, Twilight! We came back with Spike, he said you wanted him to wake y’all up,” Apple Bloom said, grinning.

Spike began to talk, “You know, Twilight, I was-“

He was cut off by Twilight, “I know where you were, Spike, I read the note you left. Thanks for remembering to do that. Now, let’s wake our prismatic friend up,” Twilight said, getting closer to Rainbow Dash with a smirk. She poked her shoulder, wanting to bring her back from her dreamland.

Rainbow Dash was dreaming about flying, flying above the clouds… flying with Twilight. Twilight wasn’t a pegasus, she was a unicorn, but she flew. She flew… somehow… she couldn’t see how she did it yet. She was just up in the clouds with her.

They both landed on a puffy surface. Wait… is she standing on it? She didn’t fall through? That wasn’t right. Something was wrong.

All of the sudden, the magical, transparent purple wings appeared, spreading out from her sides. Rainbow Dash was surprised by a sudden appearance of the magical pegasus wings, shining a purple light. They were sparkling. Something felt so weird, she’s not a pegasus, she can’t walk on clouds, she can’t fly. Once she told her that’s impossible for a unicorn to have permanent and true pegasus wings, since it’s impossible to make an exact copy of pegasus magic…  But she managed to make them somehow… she managed to make them work… she was with her up in the clouds. It was… magical. Truly magical.

Rainbow Dash was so happy she had her there. She spread her own wings, smiling widely. She wanted to exhibit them to her, she wanted Twilight to know that her wings perfectly matches her own in shape.

She felt a sudden warmth all across her body. She didn’t know where it came from. She moved in her place and smiled a little as she felt a pleasant heat coming through her spine. It was like… like somepony put a blanket on her.

She looked at Twilight, “Will you ever do something with that magic of yours that will not surprise me, egghead?”, she said, poking her chest.

Twilight smiled in response, “I don’t think so, Rainbow.”

They took off, they were flying around for a time that seemed like eternity. They were above Ponyville, in Cloudsdale, they were almost everywhere from Las Pegasus all across to Fillydelphia. They were performing tricks together, playing around, even racing each other!

After some time they both landed on a cloud just beside each other. They were laughing. Laughing out loud! Rainbow Dash was so happy about the last events. They were the best times in her life. When they finally stopped laughing, she came closer to a now alicorn Twilight Sparkle, her eyes a bit narrowed, and said, “I wish we could hang out like that some more…”

Twilight chuckled, “Rainbow Dash, wake up!”

Rainbow moved away from her, her face showing a confused look. It wasn’t an answer she expected from her, “Huh? What did you say?”

“Raaainbooooow…”

Everything around her started to turn black. Everything except smiling Twilight Sparkle sitting in front of Rainbow. She recoiled back, full of shock, and spread her wings, preparing for something dangerous to come. Then, the alicorn Twilight started disappearing as well. Rainbow rushed to her, but before she reached her, Twilight vanished into thin air.

“WHAT? WHAT’S HAPPENING?” She cried out loud, her eyes shot wide open, what made all four ponies plus one dragon around her scared to the limit. They all jumped backwards to the ground. Rainbow took off with an insane force straight up. She was hovering a few meters above the floor, panting heavily.

Everybody below got up from the ground, and started to look at the frightened Rainbow Dash above them.

“We’re so sorry Rainbow, we didn’t mean to scare you,” Spike said with his claw scratching the back of his head.

Rainbow Dash turned her head to face all of them below, “What? Me? Scared? Rainbow Dash has no fear! Rainbow Dash is not scared of anything!” She said, puffing her chest to show her endless braveness and awesomeness.

“Yeah, right,” all of them said in unison and chuckled at the irritated Rainbow Dash.

 “Fine…” she growled, and started to descend, landing on the ground in front of the rest a second later.

She looked at her extended wings and flapped them strongly a few times, letting the air flow through them. She tried to flap them at the speed that will not lift her up. The wind behind her was so strong that it opened the book about manipulation spells on the table behind her and flipped some pages, strangely opening it exactly at the page with gravitation spells.

“Aww yeah, it feels so much better…” She said with a pleased look on her face, and stopped flapping.

She faced Twilight, “Thanks, Twi! You’ve done an amazing job. My wings are in a perfect condition right now! My feather is back, and my wings are preened. You should be the one who preens my wings, even I can’t do it as good as you,” Rainbow said, looking at Twilight with a smile.

Twilight visibly flushed red, and chuckled, “N-no problem, Rainbow,” she got closer to her and nuzzled her neck, “You know I would never leave you hanging, and you can always count on me.”

Rainbow got surprised by a sudden warmth of Twilight’s breath on her neck. She winced in response, her cheeks flushing red a little too, “I-I know you wouldn’t…” ‘oh my gosh don’t go away…’

Sadly for Rainbow Dash, Twilight backed away, and said, looking at her, “What was so scary anyway? What were you dreaming about?”.

Rainbow started looking pouty, “Y-yeah, kind of…” her face shown anger again, “Argh, never mind! I don’t want to talk about this… let’s just go to Pinkie’s...” She said as she started walking towards the door. Tears almost started welling up into her eyes, she tried her best to hide them from view. She didn’t want this dream to end… ‘Come on Rainbow, you are the most awesome pegasus in all Equestria, Rainbow Dash doesn’t cry!’ She thought.

“Rainbow Dash, wait!” Scootaloo shouted, raising her hoof.

Rainbow turned her head, her face still angry, “What do you want, Scootaloo?”

“D-don’t be mad Rainbow, we just wanted to give this to you,” she said, pulling the cyan feather from under her tiny wing, and hoofed it to Dash.

Rainbow Dash was surprised. Her eyes got wide again, she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t expect somepony to bring her back her feather. When she lost them, she always considered them as lost forever. She wanted to go to search for it, because right now she needed it desperately. She knew that if she loses her feather, it’s almost impossible to get it back.

Almost…

“W-where did you g-get this from?” Rainbow asked the orange filly, retrieving the feather from her.

“We were crusading today, we found it laying in the grass near Sweet Apple Acres,” Scootaloo told her.

Rainbow flared her right wing and matched the feather to the one which was recovered by Twilight.

“Shape is correct, color too, size as well… It’s perfect… They’re exactly the same… It’s my lost feather, I’m 100% sure! You have no idea how thankful I am to all of you!” Rainbow said, beaming.

“Do you need it? Because-“ Scootaloo said, but was cut off by Sweetie Belle’s hoof and both of her friends shouting her name.

Yes, Rainbow needed it. She had a plan. She had a secret plan nopony could know about… She pretended she didn’t hear what Scootaloo said.

She put the feather under her right wing, and said, “Thanks Crusaders, I owe you one,” she winked to the trio, “But now, before I go to Pinkie’s, I have to go back to my cloud house and put this feather off. We’ll see at the party, okay?” She said, making her way to the exit.

“No problem, Rainbow!” Scootaloo said,

“We’ll meet there!” Twilight added.

Rainbow smiled at them, “Okay! See you there! Thanks again!”

She got out from the library, closing the door behind her. She took the feather from below her wing to her mouth, and took off towards her home.

‘This is going to be so awesome!’ she thought.

“Why did you cut me off? We could have Rainbow Dash’s feather!” Scootaloo shouted to her friends, angry.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, got closer to her, and whispered, “She’s plannin’ somethin’, Ah can see it… Didn’t ya see how happy she was?”

Scootaloo, after some thinking, sighed, “I guess you’re right… You have a point…”

“Come on everypony, let’s go to Pinkie’s, we don’t want to be late, do we?” Twilight said, looking at the three fillies and a dragon in front of her. All four of them nodded in response, and they made their way towards Sugarcube Corner.